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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426913">A Place to Rest</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird'>smaragdbird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:21:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,596</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426913</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Din decides to stay in Mos Pelgo</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Chocolate Box - Round 6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Place to Rest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkysparky/gifts">sparkysparky</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tatooine as it turns out, is a pretty good place to hide. There’s a reason he found the child here in the first place. Mos Pelgo is not a bad place to live by this planet’s standards. Cobb runs a tight ship with his town and the locals respect him for it.</p><p>“What do you say kid, should we stay a while?” Din asks the kid. He takes the happy coo as a yes and rubs its head. </p><p>With Cobb turning out to be not Mandalorian after all, he has no leads to turn to and given that the leftovers of the Empire are looking for the kid, guild work is too dangerous. </p><p>“You’re gonna stay then?” Cobb asks, leaning against a nearby wall. He looks slighter without the armour, vulnerable. Beskar is the best for a reason.</p><p>“Yes, we’ll stay. For now.” Greef and Cara have promised to contact him if they have any new leads.</p><p>“Come on, I’ll show you where you can stay.”</p><p>/</p><p>Cobb’s house isn’t any different to the other houses in Mos Pelgo. Din doesn’t know why he expected otherwise. Maybe because Cobb’s the authority in town and in Din’s experience, authority comes with perks.</p><p>Of course, Cobb said he’s a former slave, so maybe he’s learned from experience.</p><p>The house is a little too big for one person. There’s two bedrooms but bedding only in one of them.</p><p>“Do you mind sharing until we scrounge something up?”</p><p>Din shakes his head. Mandalorians live in close quarters with their clan. He’s used to it. Not that Cobb’s his clan. He doesn’t know where that thought came from.</p><p>They settle in easily. Tatooine’s a harsh world and there is no place for idle hands so he keeps himself busy. Helping with the krayt dragon has earned him a lot of goodwill. Ending the hostilities with the Sand people has earned him their trust. </p><p>It’s not Sorgan but the kid seems to like it all the same. </p><p>Din tells himself that’s why he’s not anxious about the lack of calls from Cara or Greef. If the kid’s happy, that’s the enough.</p><p>/</p><p>The second set of bedding never appears but Din doesn’t mind. Cobb’s accommodating so he can keep following his creed: gives him privacy when he eats, wears a mask to bed so that Din can sleep without his helmet.</p><p>It’s nice to have someone next to him.</p><p>It’s nice to wake up in the same bed, on the same planet.</p><p>Mandalorians are not meant to be alone. Clan’s live together and fight together. He’s meant to be one of many. Now he’s one of two, but in some sense that’s not true.</p><p>Cobb’s his clan.</p><p>The people of Mos Pelgo are his clan.</p><p>/</p><p>When Jabba the Hutt died, a power vacuum was left that hasn’t been properly filled since. Every other month or so another pretender reaches for the throne and gets shot dead. Fortuna nominally rules Mos Espa but he doesn’t have the control over Tatooine that Jabba had.</p><p>Mos Pelgo has some history of being at odds with the Red Key syndicate.</p><p>Cobb has some history of being at odds with the Red Key syndicate.</p><p>Din learns that the hard way.</p><p>The fifth time the gang tries to take over the town, Din pushes the beskar armour into Cobb’s hands. “I don’t want you dead.”</p><p>“Charming as always”, Cobb replies but puts it on anyway.</p><p>Din doesn’t know how to feel about what he did and why he did it. Except that the third time they had trouble with the Red Key since his arrival, Cobb got shot and he hated it.</p><p>“Think they’ll get the message?” Din asks when they kill half of the gangsters and make the other half run back with their tails between their legs, metaphorically and literally. </p><p>“They have been remarkably advice-resistant”, Cobb replies. </p><p>At home he takes off the armour and gives it back to Din without a word.</p><p>/</p><p>Sand people and Jawas are a fact of life on Tatooine. Sand people he can deal with but he remembers how quickly the Jawas demolished his ship and it makes him twitchy.</p><p>“Why are they calling you “egg bringer”? Cobb asks once the Jawas have left town again.</p><p>It wasn’t his best fight but he tells the story anyway. By the end of it, Cobb’s equally amused and impressed by it.</p><p>“So you’ve got magic powers?” He asks the kid, who coos. “Good for you.”</p><p>Not that the kid has shown those powers ever since. Maybe it was a one-time thing. Which is good. Means they draw less attention.</p><p>“I can do magic, too”, Cobb tells the kids. He holds a pika fruit in one hand, closes it and makes it appear in the other hand.</p><p>The kid is all eyes and ears after that.</p><p>Din watches them play even though he has things that need to be done. On Tatooine there are always things that need to be done.</p><p>At some point, Cobb catches him staring and smiles.</p><p>Despite knowing that Cobb cannot see his face, Din’s heart starts beating faster.</p><p>The kid uses the distraction to steal the pika fruit with his own magic.</p><p>Not a one-time thing then.</p><p>/</p><p>Against his expectations, the truce with the sand people holds. There are a few close calls but he gets roped in to translate and calm the waves and everyone goes back to what they’ve been doing before. Negotiating with the Sand people quickly becomes his job around town, and then to teach the inhabitants of Mos Pelgo their language. </p><p>A year or so into his stay, they have their first trade. It’s something small, meat for fruit, but everyone celebrates it as some major event. </p><p>“You’ve done a good job”, Cobb tells him, his arm across Din’s shoulders. He’s drunk on fermented black melon milk and a boneless, warm weight against his side.</p><p>“I didn’t do anything”, Din protests because he hasn’t. All he did was to teach Talas the language. She made the trade on her own.</p><p>The kid tries to take a sip of the fermented black melon milk. Din takes the cup away from him to squeaked protests.</p><p>Cobb’s so close that when he laughs at the kid’s antics, it raises goosebumps on Din’s neck.</p><p>“Once you grow up, kid, you can have as much as you like.”</p><p>The kid makes some more protesting noises.</p><p>“What’s that? You are grown up?” Cobb always pretends that he understands exactly what the kid says. Din has given up months ago not to find it adorable. </p><p>“Sorry, kid, but you’re not grown up until you’re at least this tall.” He holds his hand a good ten inches above the kid’s head.</p><p>Small hands grab Cobb’s knee as if to shake him. It’s very cute.</p><p>“But maybe we can find some pallas juice for you before it’s bedtime”, Cobb offers. He scoops up the kid, who’s not any keener on going to bed than not being allowed to drink alcohol.</p><p>Din watches them go. </p><p>He wants this to last forever, he suddenly realises. He wants to watch the kid grow and teach him what it means to be Mando. He also wants to wake up next to Cobb for the rest of his life.</p><p>It’s a good thing he’s already sitting down.</p><p>/</p><p>When he comes home, Cobb’s sitting in the inner yard, cleaning his weapons. He’s very meticulous about it. His shoulders are relaxed, hasn’t even turned to check if the man behind him really is Din.</p><p>“Kid’s in bed”, he says without looking up.</p><p>“Good.” Din approaches him from behind. He covers Cobb’s eyes with his hand and takes off his helmet with the other. “Do you trust me?”</p><p>“We’ve been sleeping in the same bed for a year.”</p><p>“Keep your eyes closed.”</p><p>He trusts Cobb, too, so he takes his hand away.</p><p>Cobb’s eyes stay closed. “Din, what’s ging on?”</p><p>“Keep your eyes closed please, no matter what happens.”</p><p>“Okay, sure.” Cobb’s not afraid, just curious. He really does trust Din.</p><p>It’s a calculated risk he’s taking but a risk nonetheless. </p><p>He rests his hand against the side of Cobb’s face and tilts his face closer. He’s a handsome man and yet in the year or so he’s been staying here, there has been no one but him in Cobb’s bed.</p><p>Din leans in and kisses him.</p><p>Cobb starts to smile almost immediately before his lips part and he lets Din in. It’s a good kiss, deep, familiar. As if they would’ve always ended up here.</p><p>“That was okay?” Din asks when they’re parting, both of them panting.</p><p>“A little overdue, but worth the wait”, Cobb replies.</p><p>Din wants to kiss him again when Cobb stops him. “Wait a second” He unties his neckerchief and hands it to Din. “So I don’t open them accidentally.”</p><p>He folds the piece of cloth into a long rectangle shape so that it’ll cover his eyes but won’t get in the way and ties it around Cobb’s head. “Is that okay?”</p><p>“Perfect”, Cobb’s smiles. “Now, where were we?” He reaches out blindly and Din moves into his touch. “I bet you’re really handsome.”</p><p>“Does it matter?”</p><p>“Guess not”, Cobb says and continues to explore Din’s face with his hands. “Facial hair, really?”</p><p>“Like you’re one to talk.”</p><p>“Touché.” Cobb cups his face with both hands. “Mind if I kiss you again?”</p><p>“Not at all.”</p><p>/</p><p>Life on Tatooine is harsh, and maybe there are no Jedi here, but Din reckons he’s doing right by his clan of two.</p>
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